Savagery in sections of Western media

“If the media covered America the way we cover Africa, here is what we would know of the United States over the last decade. That in 2000 there were fiercely disputed elections in which the presidency was seized by the candidate who won fewer votes than his rival. “That a year later, one of the country’s major cities was rocked by a devastating terror attack, costing thousands of lives. “And that in 2005 another city was submerged in record floods, destroying homes and leaving a thousand dead after the dominant tribe left the minority tribe to their fate. “Surely we would speak of America as the dark continent, cursed to face constant suffering.” The quoted words above form a paragraph opening one of Mr. Jonathan Freedland’s articles in the English newspaper, The Guardian. Mr. Freedman knows what he is talking about, being a seasoned journalist and author who has bagged a number of prizes for his work. And, indeed, read or listen to any report on Rwanda from the Western media these days and his words slap you bang in the face. If you stayed in the office for three consecutive days without moving out and following Western media reports on Rwanda, you’d never dare venture out. No, no report will tell you that Rwanda is inhabited by 11 million people who are living together harmoniously and going about their normal business everyday. None will tell you that like any other country, Rwanda has individuals who are opposed to the policies of its government. The reports will all tell you that the country is inhabited by “Tutsi dominators” who are preying on “Hutu dissidents”. Then they’ll go ahead and give an offering of discredited individuals for dissidents, in an outfit that is peppered with genocide-promoters. In a twist of their own logic, however, on quoting examples of the targeted Rwandans these reports on Rwanda, harbingers of doom, do not remember to carve Rwandans up into the “Hutu-Tutsi” divide, as is their intention. Leaders of “real political opposition”, “opposition journalists” and individuals on the run for whatever reason are assigned a new ethnic group, “The Majority Dissidents”. So, “The Dominating Minority” is crushing all members of “The Majority Dissidents” in the country. In fact, no where on this globe is safe for these dissidents. For instance, “The Rwandan refugee was walking home one night when four men jumped him and put him in a stranglehold.” Is this a usual occurrence on the streets of Kampala? Yes, there are such incidents in Kampala practically every evening. Since Mani Uwimana is a Rwandan, however, he had just survived “what appears to be an assassination campaign targeting Rwandan dissidents at home and abroad.” Why? Because “international rights groups have condemned Rwanda …for clamping down on dissidents, curbing freedoms and silencing opponents.” No, police in all the countries of the world look on helplessly and cannot do anything about it. Listen: “Police in Uganda told The Associated Press…that the editor of an opposition Rwandan newspaper escaped an attack last week on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.” “Six men confronted Gasasira [Jean-Bosco], editor of the opposition Umuvugizi newspaper, on June 22…Gasasira ran to his house” and is in hiding. That is why “two days after the attack of Gasasira, ‘an opposition journalist’ of Umuvugizi, Jean-Leonard Rugambage, was shot dead in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.” Did the Kampala incidents occur, and do they have any connection with the Rwandan incident? Well, in Rwanda you can tell that one has no bearing on the other because the fugitives are in custody, but who is to tell about the Kampala ones? To the south of the continent, in South Africa, there was “the attempted murder of ex-army chief, Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa…on June 19.” So? So it must be Rwanda, because “the government has boosted the number of army patrols around the capital.” Are any of the culprits Rwandan? No, but it must be Rwanda. Across the Atlantic Ocean, on the other face of the sphere and on US soil, a “St. Paul law professor…returned home this week only to be robbed at gunpoint Thursday night outside his house.” Did Rwanda have a hand in that too? But of course! Don’t you know that Prof Erlinder “spent three weeks imprisoned in Rwanda”? Our hero: “People all around the world struggled successfully to get me out of a situation where my life was threatened and get me home safely, and the irony is that I’m home, and I’m in a situation that’s even more dangerous.” Even then, the same fossil that was whining and feigning death and lunacy in Rwanda will not admit his own truth.And he is the same chest-thumping ‘champion’ who promised all the génocidaires of the world, in a conference in Brussels, that he was coming to Rwanda to put all its laws to waste and pronounce these génocidaires innocent. Erlinder was given bail by a Rwandan court on grounds of ill-health. Now he calls that court “people…around the world”!However, we are not given time to digest all that, because “The security situation is rapidly deteriorating. With only 45 days left before the election, the government is lashing out to silence its opponents and critics,” says Rona Peligal. And who is this ‘Peligal’? Some small nobody who, together with a “worried Tertsakian”, are grieving in some offices of Human Rights Watch over what they’ll sell for a living when time comes that Rwanda has gone through smooth elections. Well, girls, you’ve got some heavy grieving to do.For, as day surely follows night, that time will come to pass. pbutam@yahoo.com

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Savagery in sections of Western media